GRASS LAKE, MI – Melissa Mercer-Tachick’s daughter, Addison, had suffered from severe diaper rash for three months, and no remedy could be found.

Concerned about her six-month old daughter’s ongoing pain, Mercer-Tachick decided to do some research and create her own remedy.

“The skin needs certain things that mammals don’t produce,” said Mercer-Tachick, a former education professor at Albion College. “I looked at botanicals and started putting together a formulation.”

She created a bio-active, botanical gel that healed her daughter’s skin and can be used under diaper-rash barrier creams like Desitin.

The patent-pending gel, called Tender Defender, is now the product of Mercer-Tachick’s new company Aloe Baby, LLC. The businesswoman was selected to participate in an entrepreneurial competition called MassChallenge in Boston.

MassChallenge is a business accelerator for innovative start-up companies around the world, where entrepreneurs do a 20-minute pitch to a panel of judges about their businesses as well as access to financial backers and potential customers.

MassChallenge has attracted thousands of entrants and has reduced this year’s competitive field of 1,237 competitors from 35 countries to a short list of 300, Mercer-Tachick said.

If she is selected to go to the next round, she will be in Boston for four months. Participants are vying for a three-month accelerator program that includes mentoring and training, free office space and access to funding.

A friend who works at Amazon.com encouraged Mercer-Tachick to look for organizations that help business start-ups just like hers. When she found out about MassChallenge, she had less than 24 hours to meet the application deadline.

“I never saw myself as an entrepreneur or a business person but here I am,” Mercer-Tachick said.

Manufacturing and packaging for Tender Defender were done by Southfield-based Reforma Group and Bridgewater-based Xela Pack. Her daughter, now 17 months old, is the face of Aloe Baby.

Mercer-Tachick also wants to support social causes once the company becomes profitable.

She said low-income families are often impacted by “diaper need,” when parents cannot afford enough diapers for their children. This can lead to children being in dirty diapers longer than they should and diaper rash problems, she said.

Mercer-Tachick said she is committed to support diaper-need causes and getting her product into homes that really need it.

“I’ve always been passionate about social justice and equal opportunity for all,” Mercer-Tachick said.